Category: Trends

The malware writers are trying to keep the vendors busy while they target malware attacks, such as specific threats sent to specific users for theft purposes, she added.

“Figures may vary from one company and other, of course, but undoubtedly the Trojan hordes, due to their capability to steal passwords, give the creators the chance of stealing money,” Panda Software Labs’ Sanabria said.

The stats arrive at a time when the “classical” viruses (file virus, macro virus, etc) are considered almost dead by firms such as Panda. Ron O’Brien, senior security analyst at Sophos, explained to internetnews.com that the Mac statement was made in the context of whether the end user is committed to the effort or time to manage and maintain a safe and protected Windows environment.

“The introduction of new security measures, including some planned for Vista, may slow down the rate at which machines are impacted by malware, O’Brien said. Microsoft, for its part, said it believes Windows customers are becoming increasingly more secure, thanks in part to Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT). Microsoft claims in a recent report that since it released MSRT, over 270 million unique computers ran the tool for about 2.7 billion executions of the removal tool.

“It’s important to remember that no software is 100 percent secure,” a Microsoft spokesperson told internetnews.com.

http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3618381

Data Security was the top concern of enterprise IT professionals according to the results of a recently released survey sponsored by Apani Networks, a provider of software that secures inside the network perimeter.

The results were compiled by a third party, Infosurv Market Research, for the first of an ongoing series of surveys aimed at investigating IT security issues and concerns within enterprises worldwide.

Results were based on 591 respondents worldwide and covered questions in the areas of data protection, security policies, network segmentation, de-perimeterization, IT security implementation and attack profiles.

The theft of data emerged as a clear primary focus for all respondents, with more than 70 percent of respondents indicating they were “somewhat” to “very” concerned about potential loss of data with 38 percent of respondents indicating that they experienced an insider attack during the past 12 months.

http://www.it-observer.com/news/6547/data_security_displacing_malware_1_concern_worldwide/

http://www.csoonline.com/fundamentals/abc_leadership.html

“Over 75% of all medium businesses (100-999 employees) and almost 60% of the small businesses (1-99 employees) surveyed in the developed economies indicated that enhancing IT security was very important for them,” said Anil Miglani, New York based Senior Vice President at AMI-Partners.

Total global SMB spending on IT security is growing rapidly, driven by the continuing growth in the adoption of several security products like anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware and firewalls/VPNs.

http://www.it-observer.com/news/6527/smbs_set_spend_us_114b_it_security_2006/

“The extent and nature of these security breaches signals a new reality for the global financial services industry,” said Ted DeZabala, a principal in the security services group of Deloitte & Touche LLP. “Executing these types of attacks requires significant resources and coordination, which implies professional hackers and organized crime have entered the domain once ruled by ‘script kiddies’ and one-off hackers. This shift means organizations not only face more sophisticated and hard to track attacks, but are also challenged by increased risk and potential loss. Financial institutions should take these factors into account in their overall security strategy.”

The shift to a more sinister criminal profile of online attackers and the potential risk they represent has not gone unnoticed by the financial sector, and there is evidence that companies have started taking steps to fend off these threats. This year, identity theft and account fraud (58 percent), along with identity management (41 percent), made their way into the top five security initiatives for 2006. The industry has also responded to the recent string of natural disasters around the globe, and disaster recovery and business continuity (49 percent) also placed among the top five security initiatives. In fact, an impressive proportion of organizations (88 percent) confirmed having an enterprise-wide business continuity management program in place.

“Deloitte’s survey shows that financial institutions are attentive to the fast-paced and ever-changing security environment,” said DeZabala. “They are shifting priorities and starting to take necessary measures to mitigate emerging security risks and challenges. While it is only natural to shift focus to the most imminent threats, in order to avoid being blindsided organizations must strive to maintain a balanced, more holistic approach to their security operations and initiatives.”

Interestingly, security awareness and training is one of the initiatives that dropped off the top five list from the previous survey. While virtually all (96 percent) respondents were concerned about employee misconduct involving IT systems, only a third (34 percent) have provided their staff with some form of information security and privacy training over the past year. The most common medium financial institutions use for security training and awareness are web page alerts and emails (63 percent). Other, perhaps more effective methods, such as orientation training (35 percent) and recognition of exemplary behavior (9 percent), ranked lower in utilization.

Additional key findings of the survey:

· Ninety-five percent of participants indicated their information security budget grew over the past year. Logical access control products topped the list of security budget spending (76 percent of respondents).
· Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of financial institutions who experienced a security breach indicated the estimated amount of damage for the organization, including direct and indirect costs, was in the range of US $1 million.
· While the number of respondents with a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), dropped by 6 percent compared to last year (75 percent vs. 81 percent), the life span of the position continues to grow, with 22 percent having been in the position from six to 10 years, up from 13 percent in 2005.
· Two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents confirmed having a program to manage privacy, down by 3 percent from last year.

http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=154

The report also found that many customers are exploring network access control and content security solutions, which is delaying their purchase of core network security products until later in 2006.

In addition, Jeff Wilson, principal analyst at Infonetics Research, noted in a statement, “VPN/firewall functionality — the core of most integrated security appliance products — is truly reaching the commodity stage.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=96672&WT.svl=cmpnews1_1